The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-08-20
Studying the Eye.

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Did you ever make study of eyes7
asks writer in Mind and Nature for
January. Not girl'seyes only-all eyes.
Within that little radius of a quarter
inch are problems to last a life time
Emerson has well spoken of the eye
that threatens like leveled rife-how
often it is seen You need not visit
camps to find it; the counting room
and the Office contain it quite as often,
and sometimes it is seen even; under
crlmps. But the threatening eye is not
to be confounded with the commanding
eye or the wild beast eye. The last
mentioned, the most savage and inhu-
man of all, is seen chiefly under the
brows flushed or pale from debauchery,
and, according to circumstances, it has
a restless or fixed glare. Then there is
the cruel and treacherous eye. This is
peculiar and rather less common. 1t is
a cold gray-different from the intel
lectual gray with a dark edge to the
repellant. Sometimes yelIowish, cat
like eye looks at you saying, Tll deceive
you at every opportunity. Other kinds
are the secretive eye, set SO far back that
you cannot see its expression, the foxy,
the critical, the loving, the sensual, &c.
The list is long but of all the most COM
mon is the non-committal eye. So
frequent is it that the eye is greatly
over-rated as general index of charac-
ter; we really form our judgment from
the rest OF the features. When you
have we'll mastered the different kind of
eyes, then try to account for their differ
ences on anatomical principles. The
components of an eyes expression are
certainly not numerous. There are the
color, degree of openness, movement,
steady or vacillating, &c. Can these
material elements alone account for the
wonderful Transparency you sometimes
meetp There are eyes which seem act
ually open windows in which the invis-
ible spirit sits and becomes visible to
the earthly sense of sight.
Black eyes. or what are considered
such, are indicative of passionate ardor
in love. Brown eyes when not of the
yellowish tint, but pure russet brown,
show an afectionate disposition the
darker the brown-that is, the more
they verge on to that deepest of brown
which is in the eyes we are in the habit
of calling black-the more ardent and
passionate is the power of afection.-
The brown eyes which do not appear
black-that is, which are not dark
enough to appear so-are the eyes of
sweet, gentle and unselfsh nature, with
out the Inconsistency of the light brown
or yellow eyes golden eyes, as they
were called by lady novelist, and
which are very little more to be trusted
than green eyes.
Green eyes, although their praises
are often sung in Spanish ballads, show
deceit and coquetry. We sometimes
see eyes which are combination yell
low, orange and blue, the latter color
generally appearing in streaks over the
whole surface of the iris, while the
orange and yellow are set in the flakes of
unequal size around and at some little
distance from the pupil of the eye
Eyes of this variety of tints show intel
lect, at any rate, certain originality of
character. No commonplace nature
has this sort of eye. Hasty, irritable
persons have frequently eyes of brown
ish tint inclined to greenish hue
Although the purely green eye indicates
deceit and coquetry, the propensity to
greenish tint in the eyes is sign of
wisdom and courage. Very choleric
persons, if they have blue eyes, have also
certain tints of green in them, and when
under the influences of anger sudden
red light appears In them.
There are eyes which are remarkable
for being of what might be said to be
of no color. The iris has only some
shades of blue or pale gray so feeble as
to be almost white in some parts, and
the shades of orange which intervene
are SO small that they can scarcely be
distinguished from gray or white, not
withstanding the contrast of colors.-
The black of the pupil is in these eyes
too marked, because the color of the
iris around it is not deep enough, so
that looking at them we seem to see
only the pupil. These eyes are express
sionless, for their glance is fixed and
dead, they invariably belong to persons
of the Emphatic temperament and in
dicate listless and feeble disposition,
incapable of enterprise, and cold and
indolently selfish nature.